The electronic products industry has, for the third time, sought an extension of the certification deadline by which IT hardware makers would have to register their products with the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).

The BIS certification, which is a requirement that importers must satisfy in order to comply with the Government’s safety certification norms, has already been extended twice, with the final deadline now being January 3, 2014.

According to top officials at leading electronics companies, a reprieve does not look likely, considering that this is the third extension. If an extension is not granted, it could halt the imports of a wide range of products, including laptops, notebooks and TVs.

“Yes, we have requested for an extension. The pace at which products are registered is too slow, and we feel it cannot be done by Friday. What can we really do? We have given the products for certification… the implementation by BIS must happen,” Anwar Shirpurwala, Executive Director, Manfuacturers’ Association for Information Technology (MAIT), told The Hindu.

According to Mr. Shirpurwala, registration of the products by the BIS has picked up only in the in last two to three weeks.

“The main issue is that BIS has committed to registering all the products before the deadline. Products are still under the process of being registered and being tested,” he added.

Though MAIT had officially sent the extension request to the Department of Electronics and Information Technology close to three weeks back, it is yet to receive any official response.

The department had mandated that all imported electronics goods should comply with BIS certifications, and had set July 3, 2013 as the first deadline—which was extended twice to January 3, 2014. ``While it might be the mindset that since this is a third extension request, it won’t be granted, we think it will go through. Nobody wants the industry to suffer,” he said.